Real-time monitoring of SDN networks using non-invasive cloud-based logging platforms

The Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm enables quick deployment of software controlled network infrastructures, however new approaches to system monitoring are required to provide network administrators with instant feedback on a network's health. This paper details the deployment of an SDN system architecture featuring the integration of a cloud-based, real-time log-analysis platform. The proposed architecture uses log data collected from host machines, OpenFlow switches and the SDN controllers in a non-invasive style. This work uses a commercially available correlation platform to provide network administrators with a real-time view of the network status and the approach is validated under two scenarios: — network overload and a security attack.